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Silence, Accessibility, and Reading Against the Grain:

Silence, Accessibility, and Reading Against the Grain:. Examining Voices of the Marginalized in the India Office Records. Nathan Sowry University of Wisconsin-Madison. British East India Company in Southeast Asia. Section one. What the Archives Tell Us:

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Silence, Accessibility, and Reading Against the Grain:

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  1. Silence, Accessibility, and Reading Against the Grain: Examining Voices of the Marginalized in the India Office Records Nathan Sowry University of Wisconsin-Madison #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  2. British East India Company in Southeast Asia #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  3. Section one What the Archives Tell Us: An Attempted Mutiny and an Incomplete History #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  4. The Bengali sepoy garrisons are “but scantily supplied with necessaries and ill-equipped for such lengthy tours of duty.” • - Journal of Colonel Colin Mackenzie, 1812 • “The severity of the discipline, the continued drill, and the breach of promise made to them in detaining them so long in Java” have led to a “disaffected spirit” among the troops. • - Journal of Thomas Otho Travers, 1814 British views of Bengali sepoy life in Java: #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  5. “The production of historical narratives involves the uneven contribution of competing groups and individuals who have unequal access to the means for such production.” • “At best, history is a story about power, a story about those who won.” • - Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, 1995 According to Michel-Rolph Trouillot: #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  6. How accurate are archival records when they only represent the views of the powerful? • Is it possible or realistic to strive for a “complete” historical record? • How have the voices of the “Other” become silenced and forgotten? • Why were certain voices considered more worthy of remembrance? Questions about Historical “Completeness” and Power: #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  7. Section two Reading Records Against the Grain: Recovering the Voices of the Marginalized #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  8. Ann Laura Stoler utilized this method to listen for voices of resistance within nineteenth-century colonial reports in Sumatra. • For Stoler, “This upside-down reading goes against the colonial conventions and records of imperial history, empire builders, and the priorities and perceptions of those who wrote them .” • - Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxieties and Colonial Common Sense, 2009 Reading Colonial Records “Against the Grain”: #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  9. No longer are archivists “impartial custodians.” • We must recognize and accept our own “biased and political” nature. • We have a responsibility to present the many varying perspectives contained within the archives. Changing Responsibilities of Archivists: #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  10. “Can the subaltern speak?” – Is it possible to recover the voice of the marginalized? • We must recognize that we cannot have direct access into the minds of the creator and subject – we are essentially outsiders. • We must avoid “speaking for” and “romanticizing” the marginalized. Concerns and Caveats of Postcolonial Theory: #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  11. Section three Transnational Records: Access, Digitization, and the Future of Archives #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  12. www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/flagship-project-acti…t-of-projects/the-archives-of-the-dutch-east-indian-company-voc-project/www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/flagship-project-acti…t-of-projects/the-archives-of-the-dutch-east-indian-company-voc-project/ #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  13. VOC Archives Documents All images from www.tanap.net #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  14. Conclusion Some Final Thoughts . . . #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  15. “The archivist’s career . . . is one of service.” • “The archivist exists in order to make other people’s work possible.” • - The English Archivist: A New Profession, 1948 According to Jenkinson: #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  16. Actively seek out and include the voices of the marginalized. • Interpret and re-read current records to uncover silenced voices. • Digitize and make accessible the records in our care to make them available to a wider public. • Work cooperatively and internationally with other archives, libraries, and institutions of learning. We can go further . . . #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

  17. Thank you #SAA12 Session 502-Sowry

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